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The fiftieth episode of The Ben Heck Show

If you are into PC or console modding, then it’s safe to say that you know who Ben Heck is. For those who don’t — Ben Heck is famous console/PC modder, self-taught engineer and hacker, who also runs his very own internet TV show called simply “The Ben Heck Show”. The show is dedicated to DIY gadgets, console and PC modding, with a new episode going online every other week.

In the new fiftieth episode of The Ben Heck Show Ben accepts a viewer challenge to create an automated houseplant rotator. The point of this gadget is to help plants grow evenly on all sides, slowly rotating them as time goes. As usual, Ben bases his gadget around the use of microcontrollers, while fabricating parts for the enclosure on his own personal CNC mill. It should be noted that the automated houseplant rotator isn’t based around the popular Arduino platform, but around ATTINY45 microcontroller, which is smaller, cheaper and overall is better suited to this project. This microcontroller uses a power MOSFET to activate a small DC motor, which in turn rotates the plant using a series of reducing gears. In this project the reducing gears are needed to slow down rotation speed and to increase torque.

Besides a new episode of the show, a trailer of new (third) season of “The Ben Heck Show” was also released. According to the said trailer, the new season of The Ben Heck Show, which will start “airing” in november, will feature even more mods and custom gadgets.

As usual, you can get all of the details by watching The Ben Heck Show and the new trailer in the embedded videos.